Big maps, few players: Balance?

[Chazar]

Following this forum I got the impression that people tend to prefer larger maps, albeit this seems to unbalance the game in my opinion. At least I got the impression that quite a lot of threads discussing the game balance might be due to people using big maps with too few players.

E.g.: I wouldnt play Ulm versus Caelum in a 2player game on a large map, since this leaves Caelum too much time to develop their magic weaponry, which is their strength.

There are certainly much more balancing issues related to the size of the map played on.

(What else can you think of? Are non-recuperating combating pretenders like wyrm or cyclops more useless in bigger maps, as they have to fight more in a longer game, hence getting more afflictions? Are researching/rainbow pretenders less useful in smaller maps?)

So I just want to see how people are really playing the game, whether they follow the games recommendations and whether someone has already thought about altering the game settings to offset these issues. The poll is rather meant to be some additional statisitcal base for the discussion - and whether the problem exists only in my mind.

[Chazar]

Oh, I actually forgot to ask what people are really doing to balance a game with too few players on a big map:

- Number of staring provinces?
- World Richness?
- Research complexity?

What are good values to use?

[Nagot Gick Fel]

For me (and for many other players I know) it's the provinces/player ratio that's the most important factor, and the size of the maps is dependent on that ratio and the actual number of players. I suggest you reformulate your poll to take this into account.

[Chazar]

Yes, you're right that the provinces/player ratio is the important thing here, but I couldnt decide upon all sensible combinations.

On the other hand, I do assume that people rather play bigger maps with fewer people than vice versa. Therefore by looking at the shift between the answers of the first and the second questions one can deduce the ratio I am interested in.

But I guess the poll isnt that important here anyway. I am really more interested in what people do to keep the balance.

[Cohen]

I'd believe:

World Rich if Ermor or Pangea CW are IN.
Unless world standard is fine too.

Research:
Standard in map with 1-200 province.
Difficult in map with 201-300+ prov or
V.Difficult in map with 300+ prov

Usually I believe this is a nice setting.
Number of players counts not so much for this, but much more for pretender desing, since the more we're the earlier we come at war.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Chazar:
Following this forum I got the impression that people tend to prefer larger maps, albeit this seems to unbalance the game in my opinion.

I think it's more a single extremely vocal player, than a collection of other players.